Redress for a No-Win Situation: Using Liquidated Damages in Comparable Coaches’ Contracts to Assess a School’s Economic Damage from the Loss of a Successful Coach

This Essay addresses the difficulty of proving financial harm that results when a head coach departs during the contract term and the school thereby abruptly loses a valuable asset, that being a successful and stabile athletic program. Due to the unique and specialized nature of head coaches’ services and the industry they work in, ordinary measures for assessing damage based on substitute performance and transaction costs are insufficient. The author offers a theory of measuring a school’s damages within the construct of a lost income-producing asset valuation, using a methodology based on liquidated damage amounts in comparable coaches’ contracts.